On this episode of Finding Your Bliss, Celebrity Interviewer and Bliss Coach Judy Librach is joined by Tonya Lester, Brooklyn-based psychotherapist, couples counselor, and author of the new book “Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself!”
According to author Tonya Lester, at a time when their rights and voices are under increasing scrutiny and challenge, it’s more important than ever for women to be able to speak up for what they believe in. Too often, women are encouraged to be nurturers and peacemakers, which carries the implied message that they shouldn’t rock the boat — when in fact, being assertive is often exactly what’s required to create the life they truly want.
In Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself (New World Library, October 21, 2025), popular psychotherapist, Psychology Today blogger, and go-to relationship expert Tonya Lester offers conflict-averse women a bold directive: It’s OK to be difficult. Not mean, not rigid, not a bully — but the kind of difficult that makes the people in their lives see them and understand what they need. “I want to help you learn that seeking harmony for its own sake is a trap. That there’s no winning in making everyone else happy at your own expense. And that in nearly every situation, it is within your power to make positive changes,” writes Lester “Truly intractable situations are rare. But to change your circumstances, you must be willing to push back.”
Push Back challenges advice telling women they should smooth out interpersonal struggles and equips readers with the tools to build a life that works better for everyone in it, starting with themselves. The book is filled with real client stories, powerful self-assessments, sample dialogues, and practical tools to help readers: Express their needs and set boundaries Engage in honest, productive conflict Deal calmly with backlash from spouses, coworkers, family, and friends Stand firm in their convictions “Focusing on what we can control — how we move through the world — is how we meaningfully change our situation and set a healthy example for those in our lives,” writes Lester. “Even if we’ve been overaccommodating in the past or our needs have changed, we can still learn to assert ourselves. Our pasts don’t have to determine our futures. We’re allowed to change”
Tonya Lester, LCSW, is the author of Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself and a Brooklyn-based psychotherapist and writer known for her work with relationships and communication. Her essay “Couples Therapist, Heal Thyself” was published in the Modern Love column in The New York Times, and she has been writing the popular Staying Sane Inside Insanity blog for Psychology Today since 2020. She has been featured as an expert in The Guardian, Newsweek, Well+Good, HuffPo, Fatherly, and the Bumble site The Buzz. Visit her online at http://www.TonyaLester.com.
Join us every Saturday at 1 PM on Finding Your Bliss. You can follow us @theblissminute on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Or you can visit our online magazine at findingyourbliss.com and take one step closer to finding your bliss.
Listen live every Saturday at 1pm on Zoomer Radio
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On this episode of Finding Your Bliss, Celebrity Interviewer and Bliss Coach Judy Librach is joined by Tonya Lester, Brooklyn-based psychotherapist, couples counselor, and author of the new book “Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself!”
According to author Tonya Lester, at a time when their rights and voices are under increasing scrutiny and challenge, it’s more important than ever for women to be able to speak up for what they believe in. Too often, women are encouraged to be nurturers and peacemakers, which carries the implied message that they shouldn’t rock the boat — when in fact, being assertive is often exactly what’s required to create the life they truly want.
In Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself (New World Library, October 21, 2025), popular psychotherapist, Psychology Today blogger, and go-to relationship expert Tonya Lester offers conflict-averse women a bold directive: It’s OK to be difficult. Not mean, not rigid, not a bully — but the kind of difficult that makes the people in their lives see them and understand what they need. “I want to help you learn that seeking harmony for its own sake is a trap. That there’s no winning in making everyone else happy at your own expense. And that in nearly every situation, it is within your power to make positive changes,” writes Lester “Truly intractable situations are rare. But to change your circumstances, you must be willing to push back.”
Push Back challenges advice telling women they should smooth out interpersonal struggles and equips readers with the tools to build a life that works better for everyone in it, starting with themselves. The book is filled with real client stories, powerful self-assessments, sample dialogues, and practical tools to help readers: Express their needs and set boundaries Engage in honest, productive conflict Deal calmly with backlash from spouses, coworkers, family, and friends Stand firm in their convictions “Focusing on what we can control — how we move through the world — is how we meaningfully change our situation and set a healthy example for those in our lives,” writes Lester. “Even if we’ve been overaccommodating in the past or our needs have changed, we can still learn to assert ourselves. Our pasts don’t have to determine our futures. We’re allowed to change”
Tonya Lester, LCSW, is the author of Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself and a Brooklyn-based psychotherapist and writer known for her work with relationships and communication. Her essay “Couples Therapist, Heal Thyself” was published in the Modern Love column in The New York Times, and she has been writing the popular Staying Sane Inside Insanity blog for Psychology Today since 2020. She has been featured as an expert in The Guardian, Newsweek, Well+Good, HuffPo, Fatherly, and the Bumble site The Buzz. Visit her online at http://www.TonyaLester.com.
Join us every Saturday at 1 PM on Finding Your Bliss. You can follow us @theblissminute on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Or you can visit our online magazine at findingyourbliss.com and take one step closer to finding your bliss.
Listen live every Saturday at 1pm on Zoomer Radio
On this episode of Finding Your Bliss, Celebrity Interviewer and Bliss Coach Judy Librach is joined by Joanna Goodman, the owner of the premiere luxury bedding boutique, Au Lit Linens, and the national best selling author of 7 novels, including The Inheritance, Home For Unwanted Girls and The Forgotten Daughter.
The #1 national bestseller, The Home for Unwanted Girls, was on the Canadian bestseller list for more than six months. Joanna’s other novels include The Forgotten Daughter and The Finishing School, which were also national bestsellers. Her stories have appeared in The Fiddlehead, B & A Fiction, Event, The New Quarterly, and White Wall Review, as well as excerpted in Elisabeth Harvor’s fiction anthology, “A Room at the Heart of Things”. Originally from Montreal, Joanna now lives in Toronto with her husband and two children. And as just mentioned. Joanna is also the owner of the Toronto based linen store, Au Lit Linens . In 1981, Joanna’s mother Peggy Byron opened Boutique Au Lit in Montreal, one of the first bed linen shops in Canada to offer pure cotton sheets, instead of treated polyester. The store was an instant success, with people
lining up outside the 700-square-foot store. Soon Byron expanded the business to include a factory where she manufactured her own collection of linens. Fifteen years later, Byron moved the retail end of the business to Toronto, where she would eventually take over a store almost ten times the size of her original boutique! Sadly, Joanna’s mother Peggy Byron passed away in July of 2014. And Today, Joanna who has developed her own passion for design and fine linens - is running the family business along with her husband, Miguel. When they're not in Toronto, they're travelling throughout Europe and the U.S, sourcing the world's finest linens, planning and designing new collections, tweeting, blogging, creating and changing the way people sleep. Their new flagship store is located at 147 Tycos Drive in Toronto and the space is approximately 10,000 square feet with 40 showcase beds, each styled in different fabrics, textures, and design themes. There are also expanded departments for bath and bath accessories, loungewear, and the full bedding and
linen offering, including a dedicated Design Centre, allowing customers to explore fabrics, thread counts, and custom options.
Join us every Saturday at 1 PM on Finding Your Bliss. You can follow us @theblissminute on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Or you can visit our online magazine at findingyourbliss.com and take one step closer to finding your bliss.
Finding Your Bliss
On this episode of Finding Your Bliss, Celebrity Interviewer and Bliss Coach Judy Librach is joined by Tonya Lester, Brooklyn-based psychotherapist, couples counselor, and author of the new book “Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself!”
According to author Tonya Lester, at a time when their rights and voices are under increasing scrutiny and challenge, it’s more important than ever for women to be able to speak up for what they believe in. Too often, women are encouraged to be nurturers and peacemakers, which carries the implied message that they shouldn’t rock the boat — when in fact, being assertive is often exactly what’s required to create the life they truly want.
In Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself (New World Library, October 21, 2025), popular psychotherapist, Psychology Today blogger, and go-to relationship expert Tonya Lester offers conflict-averse women a bold directive: It’s OK to be difficult. Not mean, not rigid, not a bully — but the kind of difficult that makes the people in their lives see them and understand what they need. “I want to help you learn that seeking harmony for its own sake is a trap. That there’s no winning in making everyone else happy at your own expense. And that in nearly every situation, it is within your power to make positive changes,” writes Lester “Truly intractable situations are rare. But to change your circumstances, you must be willing to push back.”
Push Back challenges advice telling women they should smooth out interpersonal struggles and equips readers with the tools to build a life that works better for everyone in it, starting with themselves. The book is filled with real client stories, powerful self-assessments, sample dialogues, and practical tools to help readers: Express their needs and set boundaries Engage in honest, productive conflict Deal calmly with backlash from spouses, coworkers, family, and friends Stand firm in their convictions “Focusing on what we can control — how we move through the world — is how we meaningfully change our situation and set a healthy example for those in our lives,” writes Lester. “Even if we’ve been overaccommodating in the past or our needs have changed, we can still learn to assert ourselves. Our pasts don’t have to determine our futures. We’re allowed to change”
Tonya Lester, LCSW, is the author of Push Back: Live, Love, and Work with Others Without Losing Yourself and a Brooklyn-based psychotherapist and writer known for her work with relationships and communication. Her essay “Couples Therapist, Heal Thyself” was published in the Modern Love column in The New York Times, and she has been writing the popular Staying Sane Inside Insanity blog for Psychology Today since 2020. She has been featured as an expert in The Guardian, Newsweek, Well+Good, HuffPo, Fatherly, and the Bumble site The Buzz. Visit her online at http://www.TonyaLester.com.
Join us every Saturday at 1 PM on Finding Your Bliss. You can follow us @theblissminute on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. Or you can visit our online magazine at findingyourbliss.com and take one step closer to finding your bliss.
Listen live every Saturday at 1pm on Zoomer Radio
